April 08, 2010

Updates and More

Hi Everyone,

A few updates:

First, I'll be looking forward to seeing many of you at Sur la Table in Kirkland and Portland on April 17th and 19th. I believe the classes are sold out but call the store if you want to enroll, as sometimes people drop out.

Also, I'll be teaching in King of Prussia, PA on May 15th at the new Sur la Table. Because the store is so new you may have encountered problems trying to enroll via their website, so call the store directly if you can't get the website enrollment to work. Last I heard, there are still some seats left. Am also looking forward to the classes in Arlington, VA on May 17th, and in Richmond. VA on the 18th.

I've been informed that there is one last chance for anyone wishing to join in on the Cookbooker's "Artisan Breads Everyday" Challenge. They've been running this for a number of months with quite a few participants so, before they wrap it up, check them out at www.cookbooker.com/challenge.php

Finally, I want to share this e-mail, with her permission, from a passionate home baker named Pia, whose enthusiasm speaks for itself. She is referring to recipes from The Bread Baker's Apprentice:

With two of the breads I've baked come stories to tell.I almost messed up the sourdough bread. I retarded the dough overnightand I had it wrapped in some heavy kitchen towels. The next morning Itook it out and I wanted to give it it's 4 hrs time. After about anhour my curiosity got the better of me and I unwrapped one of theloaves (face down wrapped in cloth in a nice round bowl, actually thatone in a ceramic bowl). And I was shocked. The dough had dried out alot, the loaves had sprung open at the seam of the boules. It lookedpretty bad. And I thought "you can throw that away". I first hadgotten the barm ready, then made the starter, then the final dough andnow the overnight - so much time already involved and ruined... Whenputting the loaves in the fridge I had forgotten that my fridge isn'tthe newest anymore and dehydrates food more then normal, I have totake with everything I put in there precautions against dehydration. Ialso had never used a hearth stone yet, and also was new to creatingthe steam (the spraying for the Kaiser Rolls I thought didn't reallycount in comparison), so I thought "you know what, try to make thebest out of the dough as is and bake it on the hearthstone. In caseyou fail on that you at least didn't waste 2 batches of dough". So Itook some oil spray to the dough tried to close the seams again itkind of worked but not as nicely as I had hoped. I took the dough outof the cloth, thinking that with the low humidity in California itprobably would even try out more if I didn't take additionalprecautions, turned the loaves around so that gravity would helpsupport the seams, willing to give up some of the pretty shape I hadmeant to create, sprayed some water on the dough (but not drenching itin water) and put saran wrap over it, thinking that this way the doughhad a chance to soak some moisture up and perhaps would recover atleast some. And after like 4 more hours at room temperature it lookeda lot better had risen properly and I decided to give the baking a go.And it worked! When I took the loaves out, they smelled awesome, like'real' bread. and the crust.. oh the crust was so pretty (since I'm inthe US I miss so much bread with nice crispy crust, but crust that ismore then just a little thin layer, crust that you can chew and itcrunches at first and the more you chew it the more flavor you get outof it and it gives you a real mouth full and stays a mouth full andmarries in your mouth with the flavors of what you put on the bread).And the loaves weren't as pretty shaped as they should have been andin the finished loaf one could still see a little the badly treatedseams, but the bread was a loaf, undeniably.Finally 45 minutes were over and I could cut into the bread. I firsttested that they really didn't feel too hot anymore, not that I wouldruin something of the final stage on the cooling rack, but it feltright. So I cut into it. In my family we called that first small piecethat has all that much crust to it in German "Kruestchen" (the littlecrust) which as children we always fought over and my motherimplemented a rule that we had to take turns. And the bread sounded sowonderful when I cut into it, and it got pressed somewhat togetherwhile cutting, but it sprung right back into it's shape, and thetexture of the bread on the inside was all right, just as it wassupposed to be. And then I ate it, that little crust right as it was,with nothing on it. And it was so good! This was the bread that I hadknown from Germany from growing up! Bread that I hadn't been able tofind when I lived in Frankfurt or since I moved to the US. I grew upclose to the town "Trier" which is about a 30 minute drive away fromthe french borderline (close to Strasbourg). I can't tell you howawesome I felt when this dough that I had almost given up on turnedinto something so delicious.When I had made the barm for the basic sourdough bread I had madeenough to also try the poilane style miche (that bread was the reasonI bought your book, it so much looked on the picture like the bread Iwanted to have so much and had missed so dearly). I had put it in therefrigerator according to your directions and on the day I had madethe dough for the basic sourdough bread I made the firm starter forthe poilane style miche (working on both breads with one day offset)I had decided to make two loaves from the quantities that you hadgiven in the recipe. One loaf probably would be too big for me and myhusband to eat in time before it dries out, I know bread to hold upfresh much better when the loaf isn't cut. After the basic sourdoughbread had gone in the oven and the steaming minutes were over I madethe dough for the miches. After the fermentation I shaped the boules,having become informed about the what my fridge did, I didn't try towrap the loaves in cloth and put them in bowls, but dusted the bowlswith semolina flour, put the loaves face down in there sprayed oilover it and put plastic wrap tightly on top. When I took the loavesout of the fridge the next day they just looked right (no open seams,no dried out sad skins, just plump and ample boules ready to springinto action). I loosened the plastic wrap a little to allow some aircirculation (I had wrapped it really tight for the fridge) and let theloaves do their thing. And they did it wonderfully being after about 4hours ready for baking. Somewhat informed about the hearthstone andthe steaming I felt a bit more confident - turned out a bitoverconfident, I had forgotten to score the loaves and noticed itafter I had pushed them onto the hearthstone and pured the water intothe steaming pan. I decided to give them a chance as they were, withthe decreased volume of each loaf I thought the chances that bigbubbles would put holes in the bread where small so I relaxed andthought "you left yourself another chance for success when you do itcompletely right the next time". I didn't want to keep the oven dooropen longer then necessary, as you had said the temperature droppedquite a bit just from the opening for the steaming, so I thought don'ttry to mess with it now. The smells during baking and after when Itook the bread out where again wonderful. I also love that littlecrackle that the bread does when it still bakes after you take it outfrom the oven and put it on the rack to cool. Then again the waiting.I have to leave the kitchen during the waiting period or I can'tresist the temptation to pick on the bread or touch and handle it toomuch. So I just answered some e-mails instead!Finally I could try. Again the little crust. This bread had similarqualities regarding the beautiful sound when you cut into the crust,also the way it was pushed together and sprung back was just gorgeous.And the taste. This bread tasted richer then basic sourdough bread, Idon't want to say more flavor, but just richer flavor, kind of fullydeveloped in what the other bread had hinted at. And the crust is evenbetter. I just love crust, ever since I can remember. When I came tothe US and I saw people cutting the crust of the bread to give it totheir children I couldn't believe it. But when I tried the bread Ikind of could understand it.Dinner that evening involved the bread I had made that day, I justfried a little ham (not really frying, more like heating with a littlebrowning) and I had bought some organic cheese from unpasteurizedmilk, which I think the most simplest of is tastier then most of thevarieties of cheese you can buy made from pasteurized milk, and putthat on top of the ham, just let it get a hint of warm so that itstarted to get soft but didn't run and put it on a slice of the bread,topped it with another slice and served it with some fresh coleslaw.It was good. My husband always gets mad when he sees me buy organicproduce (because of the price), but the cheese is just so much better,once in a while I just do it and don't tell him, he sure loves to eatit. We both took seconds of that dinner that was so simple yet sogood.The poilane style miche reminded me a lot of the bread that a bakerhad, who would drive from house to house (twice a week) selling hisbread, I never had thought that I would be able to home bake it!

And that is just half of Pia's full letter--she was simply bubbling with excitement, especially about how these loaves reminded her of bread from her childhood, and of all the new ones she's still planning to make. That's the wonderful joy and power of bread; its evocative nature. Thank you Pia, and everyone who is on this journey with us. I couldn't have captured the magnetic potency of bread baking any better than Pia and, perhaps, her own bread lessons and discoveries will be helpful to some of you.